�Actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. 12 I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. 13 Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.� The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Philippians (Chapter 4 verses 11-13 from The Message)
Just three days from now, many of us will be sitting around a dining room table, holding hands with loved ones, indulging in our favorite holiday foods, and reveling with thanks for the abundant blessings which have been graciously bestowed upon us. Ahhh, Thanksgiving! That one day of the year when�those of us in the U.S. and Canada anyway�stop to reflect, with engorged tummies and turkey-stuffing-pumpkin-pie-and-whipped-cream-induced contentment, upon the many ways in which we feel blessed.
Most Thanksgivings find me with the need to �count my blessings,� and indeed, that is the most commonly heard �phrase of the day.� And how often have you found yourself doing just that? We have certainly, in our own family, sat around our large antique farmhouse table, and, surrounded by extended family and friends alike, quietly declared something for which we were profoundly grateful. Some years brought laughter and relief: thanks for a baby finally sleeping through the night, or a toddler getting into �big boy underwear.� Other years brought smiles and deep satisfaction: a dear friend finding a mate or announcing a pregnancy. Others brought the premonition that this might be the last Thanksgiving with a loved one who was elderly and ill. Still others brought the resignation that a new house would be our home for awhile, and as transplanted corporate people we would learn to carve out a life in a strange city, displaced from family, friends, and all things familiar.
But during this past week, I came across the phrase �overlooked blessings,� although I cannot recall where I read it or to whom it should be attributed. Nonetheless, the phrase has certainly stirred up more emotion than has the notion of �counting my blessings.� For it is profoundly more thought-provoking to conjure up blessings that have been there all along but for one reason or another have gone unrecognized. To all of a sudden be alert to hidden treasures which we�ve taken for granted. Never counted. To be startled by the diamonds in our own backyard, the jewels in our own children�s crowns, and the pearls around our own mothers� necks.
Never has my own mother looked so sweet as she has lately. For in taking care of Nick, our seventeen-year-old son recently diagnosed with leukemia, I have had to shoulder much of his care�in the same unselfish way that my own mother did when I suffered the affects of being hit by a car as a pedestrian twenty-seven years ago. Fracturing much of the right side of my body from the pelvis down, I was bedridden for four months. Straddled with a forty-five pound cast�which meant that simple things like going to the bathroom were impossible doing alone�I was not only physically immobilized; I was emotionally immobilized as well. Missing the fall semester of my junior year in college, I was distraught by the loss of schooling, the gap in friendships and in my social life, and the maddening interruption of my life as I knew it. Yet my own mom took care of me, day in and day out, without a complaint or a suggestion of her own personal fatigue, or the resulting interruption in her own agenda. The pearls around my own mother�s neck are apparent to me now more than ever, as I go about the business of doing those same things for our son that she did for me. He is also physically and emotionally broken.
And it is so easy�now�for me to recognize all of the blessings of his life that I had previously overlooked. Great health, great looks, great intellect, great sense of humor, great friends. Each and every one of those are things I assumed he would claim daily�..So never has my son looked so sweet as he has lately. And I am recalling all of the blessings that he has given us over the years that we had previously overlooked.
It seems that we�re wired to appreciate far too little all that we have until we�ve experienced the lack thereof. We don�t appreciate a beautiful roof over our heads until we suffer a startling move to a strange land, or, as my friend Silvia has recently witnessed, the lack of a roof because of house fire. (Silvia lost everything three weeks ago.) We don�t appreciate financial security�if there ever really was such a thing�until the stock market crashes, a spouse loses a job, or our health benefits dry up. And we rarely stop to think about chasing a soccer ball, riding a bike, or raking the leaves�until illness strikes and such simple pleasures are stripped from our everyday reality.
The blessings I have overlooked are undoubtedly different than yours. And my litany may not serve your particularly well, so I�ll refrain from sharing my list with you. Suffice it to say that during my quiet time this week, I will journal all of those overlooked blessings that in years past I had taken for granted. Of course, it goes without saying that healthy children with be at the top of my list. But there are three others I do feel compelled to share:
� I have overlooked the blessing of neighbors and of community. Our own have enveloped and embraced us these past four weeks, and we will be forever grateful. Blessed with dinners, errand-running, and kiddie-shuffling, our neighbors have allowed us to be liberated by some of reality�s harshest necessities so as to be better equipped to be Nick�s biggest advocates.
� I have overlooked the blessing of living in this day and time. I appreciate the advances achieved in modern medicine that would have been unavailable to our family had we lived in a previous time; the blessing of the media, which has made it possible for me to expand my territory; and for cultural and societal shifts which have served to shaped me and my life message.
� I have overlooked the blessing of technology. Chided for being technologically-challenged (or retarded, depending on who you talk to), I do appreciate, more than ever, the invention of the Internet, which is directly responsible for allowing me to become connected to you. A mere twelve months ago, I was sending my newsletter to about one hundred people. Today, it is going to moms in virtually every state in the U.S., and throughout Canada, South America, Europe, and Africa.
Lastly, I am able to reclaim a blessing that has eluded me since October 25, the gut-wrenching night that Nick was diagnosed with leukemia. Romans 8:28 is one of my favorite Scripture verses, yet one that I was unable to hold onto. Paralyzed by fear, horrified by the prospect of my eldest son�s mortality, and lacking the faith for his complete healing, I was only able to ask others to claim this verse for me, and pray that one day I would be strong enough to do so on my own again. Today, as I look forward to celebrating Thanksgiving, I am thankful most of all that through fervent prayer and the faithful intercession of people around the globe, I am able to boldly proclaim that �all things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.�
Carolina Fernandez earned an M.B.A. and worked at IBM and as a stockbroker at Merrill Lynch before coming home to work as a wife and mother of four. She totally re-invented herself along the way. Strong convictions were born about the role of the arts in child development; ten years of homeschooling and raising four kids provide fertile soil for devising creative parenting strategies. These are played out in ROCKET MOM! 7 Strategies To Blast You Into Brilliance. It is widely available online, in bookstores or through 888-476-2493. She writes extensively for a variety of parenting resources and teaches other moms via seminars, workshops, keynotes and monthly meetings of the ROCKET MOM SOCIETY, a sisterhood group she launched to �encourage, equip and empower moms for excellence.� Please visit rocketmom.com rocketmom.com